The Hindu Business Line : Buzzing with innovation

Entrepreneurship is bubbling all over Asia. This is the message from Chris Boulton and Patrick Turner in Mastering Business in Asia: Entrepreneurship, Wiley (www.wiley.com) . Believe it or not, thinks have been happening in North Korea too. "Since July 2002, citizens have been allowed to open small business such as restaurants and bakeries. In March 2004, the authorities introduced markets where licensed individuals and companies can trade goods."

The first concerted attempt to review the state of entrepreneurship around the world was GEM (Global Entrepreneurship Monitor), created in 1999, say the authors. An index of importance is TEA, short for Total Entrepreneurship Activity, "which is simply the number of individuals active in the start-up or early growth phase of a new business, expressed as a percentage of the total working population."

For 2002-03, global average was 9, while Thailand and India were at the top with 18.9 and 17.9 respectively. In comparison, Japan's was 1.8, Singapore's 5.9, and the US' 11.7. Worrying, though, is the extreme volatility of India's score - from 6.3 in 2000 to 11.2 in 2001 to 17.9 in 2002. "Fuelled possibly by the sharp rise in IT and BPO activity," postulate the authors. Asia is `buzzing with new IP development activity' - so much so, that "in some places, there are many more innovative ideas than entrepreneurs to exploit them." Boulton and Turner add that non-technological start-ups too are burgeoning, "sometimes bringing strikingly original ideas to seemingly well-trodden areas," as in the case of "QB House's 10-minute haircuts in Japan, and the Bed Supperclub in Bangkok."

The level of optimism is at its peak among Asian entrepreneurs; 97 per cent of respondents described themselves as `somewhat' or `very' positive about prospects for their business over the next five years, reports the book. Positives are contributing also to return migration. For instance, top three motivating factors for coming back to India, as per a recent OECD study are: family/ personal reasons, recognition of India as a major emerging IT power, and increasing employment opportunities here. "Many Asian companies suffer from an underdog mentality, which becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy," note the authors, citing the work of Arnoud de Meyer and Sam Garg. "Companies perceive themselves to be good exclusively for low-cost/low-value production." But shifts are visible across Asia, with "the move away from a purely low-cost manufacturing area toward direct and intensive involvement in technology and development." One such example, in education, is that of Gerald Cai's Singapore-based venture, Questation, to offer mathematics classes to US students, over a virtual classroom learning platform. Exciting read.

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D. Murali